The day before Halloween

Since Halloween is on Sunday this year, we had most of our festivities today. It was a WONDERFUL day. Michael has had the last 4 days off so its been nice to have extra help and to just have him here. I LOVE HIM! The first event was lunch at pizza hut with gma Dorothy, gma & gpa Asay, Jared & Jacob. We were celebrating the end of the beet harvest, which is definitely worth celebrating. After lunch, we did some errand at Pamida and took Jacob home with us and he helped Michael pull the tarp off our garden so we can burn it and till it up. Jacob is the man! After that, Stan & Jan took the kiddos to their house and Michael and I raked leaves and I carved a pumkin. by myself. :) After that we went to Stan & Jan's, got the kids dressed, collected our first round of candy and started off for somesome trick-or-treating!!

First stop at great gma Asays, then Verda Von Delight, then gma Dorothy's. We were sad to miss gpa Simmons and Brenda this year because they were at state volleyball in Casper. After that we dropped Michael and Kandace off and Stetson and I went by ourselves to finish off our night. It was way more fun than I anticipated. It has been SUCH a joy to experience holidays with Steston. Its indescribable to watch his reactions and interpretations of things from year to year, and I think this year he finally "GOT IT." He ran from house to house (everyone thought he was such a cute "Mr. Brown" said trick-or-treat without cues from mom and just ate it up. HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!!

Halloween cookies and carnivals!

This is definitely a picture overload because we got our new camera and I'm excited about it. This was the day (10.29.10) after the bucking incident so it was a little hard to scrape up the energy to make Halloween cookies with Setetson but I'd told the CRC that I'd bring some, so we did it anyway and it was fun. Stetson had lots of fun decorating them, especially with my cool frosting gun. After Stetson's party at the CRC, we got ready for the Halloween carnival in Cowley. After we got to Cowley and realized it wasn't until TOMORROW night (whoops) we decided to take the kids to the carnival in Lovell for Headstart. They had a big blow-up bouncy thing that Stetson loved and other booths that he got prizes at. After the carnival we got an $8.99 large pizza at Pizza on the Run then went to the Lovell vs. Burns football game.

Buckin bronco

This was a day of surprises. We got our new camera, so I've been taking pics like crazy, I subbed for a couple hours in the afternoon at the elementary in Lovell and when I came home Michael invited me to go "help" (I use that term loosely) him and Jared help bring a bull in that got lose. We let Stetson ride with Michael for a while and that was fun until Michael decided to get off and lead the horse for a while. So Stetson is riding the horse alone, which is no big deal (we thought) and then the horse started dancing around and Stetson started sliding off and screaming. I did pretty good 'til right at the end right before Michael was able to rescue him off the horse. YIKES!! After that Stan and Jan came and got Stetson, Michael and Jared and I went on our way to get the bull. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL especially during this time of year and I was glad to be there. A few times along the ride Jared & Michael told me to stay put so I wouldn't get in the way and the horse I was on hated it because he wanted to be where the other horses were, so it was hard to keep him in one place. Well we were on the home stretch and Jared & Michael once again told me to stay by a gate and wait while they got the bull. Once again, the horse wanted to be where his buddies were and he was very obviously getting more fed up with the dumb girl riding on his back. I tried my hardest, but the horse kept dancing around, whipping his head here and there and finally he bucked me OFF. OUCH! I was SO sore that evening and night. Right after it happened Stan came and took my horse and I drove the ranger home. When I got back to Asay's I tried to hold it together but when I took Stetson to the potty while we were there I just sat on the tub and cried like a baby. That night Stan & Jan took Stetson to the trunk or treat for their ward party and Stetson told everyone his mom was crying in the bathroom. One guy said "Well get used to it, thats just what girls do." LOL Well I feel lots better now and I'm thankful for my great husband who takes care of his sissy wife with no complaints (most of the time).

Grandma Asay was in the Halloween spirit!

baby girl in the tub

After I took Kandace out of the tub I got her dried off and dressed and ran to the family room for a sec and when I went back to the tub she had climbed back in. Awesome.

Here's a little update for our journal:

Since Michael has become a certified med tech, his hours have been cut down to about 36ish hours a week, so I've been subbing on his off days.I have mixed feelings abot it. Its good for me to get out the house once or twice a week and do something different. I like feeling like I'm a part of something outside the home I guess and the extra money will come in handy. I subbed at the HS/MS last week on brown and gold day. I had an old vball lady grizz shirt that was brown and gold that I'd been saving for something, I didn't know what, so I wore it and felt pretty cool about myself. I was still feeling like I could pass for a high schooler until Michael burst my bubble and said I definitely could NOT still pass for a high schooler. Anwyay, it was fun to be a part of the festivities and to see some of my nephews who I LOVE!! Can't believe my oldest nephew will be a freshmen next year. What is HAPPENING??? LOL

Tuesday I subbed for the preschoolers which was SO fun. I love that age and it was fun to get a feel for what Stetson will be doing next year. My little nephew Adam was in one of the classes so that was fun.

I'm still taking my online classes (the 2nd one started this week) and its getting old. I'm really having to force myself to do the homework. I don't know how I took 21 credits when I was a real college student (I guess I didn't have 2 kids then, either:) I'm doing my 6th observation today of the PE class at LES. Gma Dorothy watches the kids and they LOVE it.

The fall weather has been BEAUTIFUL!~ I don't remember October ever being like this, but I'll take it. My flowers are still blooming and pretty so thats been fun to enjoy that.

We're excited for Halloween and all the upcoming festivities. Stetson is at the PERFECT age and is excited about everything. He's being the UPS man and we told him thats what he'd be like a month ago while we were waiting for his costume to arrive in the mail. He'd ask about it every day and we'd have the whole conversation over again, so when it arrived you can imagine his enthusiasm. Love moments like that.

Sugar beet harvest

Its harvest time!! Michael's dad is a farmer who grows sugar beets (among other things) so this is a busy time of year!! Michael loves to help out and any help is appreciated so Michael has been driving some loads to the sugar beet factory and I get to ride with him sometimes. I love it. I lvoe being with Michael, sitting high up in the truck and just being a part of the harvest awesomeness! :)

A great day

A couple weeks ago Michael had the day off so we went to the farm and helped build fence. We drove out there in one of the many sweet farm vehicles (I think it was the green car minus doors) and Michael put fences up while I held all the "parts." The weather was beautiful, so being outside was a joy and the kids had a ball. Uncle Jared was even kind enough to peel a sugar beet so Kandace could try a bite :)

Kandace at 20 mos

Kandace will be 20 mos this Sunday. She is at such a fun age (we say that about every age:) but she really is. She has so very much personality. She loves her dad, she loves her mom and she loves lots of other things. She loves to drink "Oooce" (juice) but I think even more than that she loves to pour it on the floor and step in it or spread it around with her hand. She and Stetson are finally at a point where they can play nice together for short periods of time, and I LOVE those times. Stetson will occasionally let her help him put puzzles together or whatever. I usually try to stear clear when they're playing nice because I don't want to disrupt it.

What is especially fun are all the "words" Kandace is saying now.

Me: mommy

da-ee: daddy

da: Stetson

pa: gma or gpa

no: no she has this one down pat

mow: more

bah: her special pink blanket or bear

dah: dog (she loves animals at a good distance:)

oooce: juice

dough: milk or water

Anyway, she's good at letting us know what she needs. She is very good about picking out the animals in the stories we read. Whenever we read "Big Red Barn" she points at all the animals and tries to say their names. She's starting to count. When we say one, she says two, sometimes tee (three).

My favorite things about Kandace are when I'm holding her and she puts her hands on my cheeks and pulls my face in her direction, so that I don't miss what she's trying to tell me. I love when I'm laying down on the floor watching TV or something and she comes and lays right on top of me with her arms around me.

Whenever I come home afer step or something she runs to the door yelling "Meeeeeeeee" (mommy) and I LOVE that. :)

She gets mad at Stetson and "yells" at him, which consists of short 1 syllable sounds aimed at his direction i.e. "BAH!" or something like that. So funny.

We are crazy about her and are so happy she's in our family.

traffic lights

Today has been a great day. The best part was listening to this talk today which has very much changed my view on things (I had been hearing a lot about it and I only caught a bit of it since it was on Saturday morning session, so I looked it up today while Kandace was sleeping and Stetson was still at preschool. This talk is wonderful)!! The 2nd best part was when my Stetson came home from preschool (that event alone is worth celebrating) but the best was when I opened his backpack, pulled out a picture of stoplights and he said, (VERY enthusiastically) "Red means stop, yellow means slow down, and green means go!" I love my boy and am so happy that he's learning at school and having a great time.

Life is good.

ps. Post on Kandace coming soon :) we really do love her as much as Stetson

Stetson's first day

Today was Stetson's first day of preschool. He is in the 3 year old class and I couldn't be more thrilled. At first I thought they'd just send someone over to work with him on his 3 sounds (g, k and r) but after hearing what they do there (songs, stories, social interaction, snacks, exposure to something besides home) I thought it'd be great to send him there. Its MF, 1-3P. I've been asking him the last couple days if he was excited to go to preschool, and he always says "no, you mean children's resource center." Love it. And yes, he was excited to go. He was asking me all day when we got to go. I think he really likes it and I'm not gonna lie, its heaven to have 1 hour of quiet time 2 days a week.